Reseña

Did you know that bronze was the first alloy that man obtained from native copper with a thermal cycle combined with forge?

That the metallurgists in India developed a high-quality steel called Ukku between the years 800 to 400 a. C., known later as Damascus steel? The term Wootz Steel was given by the English in the seventeenth century.

That the chemical and technological properties of metals and alloys depend on the content of impurities?

The refining of metals and alloys consists of eliminating impurities with pyro-metallurgical or hydrometallurgical processes to achieve the technical specifications of the market.

With the first Industrial Revolution 1780, a juncture was created to produce better quality steel by refining liquid iron (pig iron). In 1850, the demand for high-quality steel allowed the development of new methods to refine the pig iron in reverberatory furnaces and Bessemer converter, together with the variant proposed by Sydney Gilchrist Thomas Martin. At the beginning of 1900, the LD process was developed to refine steels and in 1950, the secondary refining process was implemented in crucible kilns.

On the other hand, the great demand stainless steels of the 300 series, allowed the development of other alloys to facilitate the manufacture of special steels. Thus, large ferronickel producing plants with very efficient secondary refining stations emerge to supply a high-quality product to the world market.

Today the FeNi industry in the world refines the metal in stations designed with very robust auxiliary equipment suitable to minimize the environmental impact, reduce accidents during the process, provide a safe workplace for operators and maintainers. Finally, with a simplification of the processes, a good analysis of times and movements together with the adequate training of the operators has been achieved to refine 65 tons of FeNi with a sulfur content greater than 0.5% in less than 2 hours.